Project Amplify – a Jesus College-funded project in Jamaica, which worked with young people to explore the potentials and pitfalls of interacting in virtual environments and gaming spaces – has published its final report.

The report – Co-designing Metaverse Ethics: Perspectives of Jamaican Youth – emphasises the pivotal role that young people can, and should play in co-designing ethical guidelines for the Metaverse, and underscores their importance in defining what the digital future looks like. It also presents a set of recommendations to policymakers, researchers, investors and funders, and Metaverse providers and developers on the development of ethical digital spaces.

Project Amplify was an innovative education programme run in collaboration between Youth Can Do I.T. (YCDI) – a Jamaican youth empowerment organisation – and Jesus College. It aimed to empower young Jamaican students in the design and use of emerging digital environments, with a specific focus on the Metaverse. The project was funded through the College’s Development Fund, and led by researcher Dr Samantha-Kaye Johnston, Supernumerary Fellow in Education at Jesus, and YCDI colleagues Cherika Wilson and Christopher Derrell. Project Amplify was supported by programme facilitators from both Jamaica and Jesus, who were specially trained for the project. They also helped to shape the final report, including its accompanying ethical guidelines.

 

While the Metaverse offers continuous and exciting new opportunities for young people to engage in creative play, and to learn and develop their thinking, there are also potential risks to their online safety, autonomy, information security, data privacy rights, and overall wellbeing.  The Project Amplify team worked with twenty-five Jamaican schoolchildren over the course of a year to engage them in how the Metaverse operates, to develop the skills to design their own ethical Metaverse spaces, to listen and understand their concerns about interacting in virtual environments, and how these concerns could be ethically addressed.

 

Samantha explains: “It is vital that young people have the digital intelligence – the tools and awareness to engage in critical thinking, critical reading and critical creation in digital environments- to navigate the digital world safely. Through a series of guided sessions, we engaged with the children in ethical decision-making processes related to the Metaverse, and supported them to co-create a set of ethical guidelines to inform the development of the Metaverse.”

A small group of the participants also had the chance to visit Jesus earlier this year, and present their Metaverse designs to the College and wider UK community. They also visited the Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, His Excellency Alexander Williams, in London.

 

 

The final report sets out a series of key recommendations, developed by the project team, programme facilitators, and youth participants, for policymakers, investors and funders, Metaverse providers and developers, and researchers working in this field.

 POLICYMAKERS

• Policymakers should be proactive in adopting data protection policies that address the complexities of the Metaverse, beyond current regulations, including AI-enabled Metaverse environments.
• There should also be investment in education tools and youth innovation experiences that nurture critical thinking and creative thinking, both in and outside of schools.

INVESTORS & FUNDERS

• Funders should value the principles of a slow scholarship model where a deeper and more sustained involvement of young participants is fostered to enhance learning and skills, build confidence, and enable meaningful engagement in co-designing digital environments.

METAVERSE PROVIDERS & DEVELOPERS

• Providers and developers should not only focus on ethical design but also ensure that they embody ethical values, including reflecting on whose values are being represented and whose are being left out.
• They should also consider an ‘autonomy life cycle’ as a structured approach to respecting user autonomy within the Metaverse. Project Amplify proposed an autonomy life cycle, which consists of four stages related to user interaction: (1) initial engagement, (2) continuous engagement, (3) disengagement, and (4) re-engagement. The cycle begins with initial engagement, where users are onboarded and thoroughly informed about their rights, and responsibilities within the Metaverse. During continuous engagement, users are ethically monitored, and provided with tools that empower their virtual identities and content creation. This stage also includes ongoing maintenance and regulation, which involves assessing and adjusting autonomy levels based on user feedback. When users choose to disengage from the Metaverse, clear and transparent processes should facilitate a smooth exit, allowing them to retain control over their data and virtual assets. Provisions for re-engagement ensure that returning users can easily re-enter the Metaverse with updated information and support, ensuring a respectful transition throughout their journey.

RESEARCHERS

• Parents’ play a critical role in shaping their children’s online experiences and ethical viewpoints, and their perspectives should be more systematically included in future studies.

 

It’s hoped that the report’s findings and recommendations will now inspire further discussions on both co-designing with young people in long-term projects, and discussions that shape the ethical development of the Metaverse.

Samantha says, “This report shows that Jamaican youth are not only keeping pace with global technological developments but are leading the charge in shaping the ethics, and future of the Metaverse. It highlights the youth’s pioneering role in defining ethics for the Metaverse, using culturally resonant experiences that blends local identity with global significance.”

She adds, “I feel very proud of the young people who participated in Project Amplify. We had an entire year of learning with, and from them, and it was enlightening to see how the young people’s roles evolved throughout the course of the project. Leading Project Amplify over the past year was a challenging endeavour, but with the collaboration of Cherika Wilson and Christopher Derrell from YDCI (our partner organisation in Jamaica), the invaluable support of university-level facilitators from Jamaica and Jesus College, and expert trainers from around the world who delivered capacity-building sessions, we successfully engaged young people through interactive and impactful sessions. All of this was aimed at amplifying their voices in shaping the ethical design of the Metaverse.”

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

READ THE ACCOMPANYING ETHICAL GUIDELINES HERE